Land acknowledgments face criticism over sovereignty concerns

Land acknowledgments have become a common practice at universities and city councils across the United States. These formal statements recognize the Indigenous tribes whose ancestral territories the institutions occupy.

At UC Berkeley, club orientations include acknowledgments of the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people and the Verona Band of Alameda County. The university has also dedicated webpages to these practices and named a housing complex ‘xu?yun ruwway’ after an Ohlone name. However, the Ohlone people are not a federally recognized tribe. Critics argue that these gestures are empty and undermine American sovereignty by framing the United States as an occupying force on land that has been American for centuries.